


Ghost in the City

by merryghoul



Category: Burn Notice
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: angst_bingo, Community: hc_bingo, Drowning, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-01
Updated: 2012-07-01
Packaged: 2017-11-08 23:43:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/448866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone close to Michael drowns.  He finds a way to cope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost in the City

**Author's Note:**

> angst and hc_bingo: drowning  
> comment_fic: [Burn Notice, Cast, Fiona drowned in Long Way Back, and Michael's having a hard time coping.](http://comment-fic.livejournal.com/133377.html?thread=28951809#t28951809)

Michael hoped he wasn't too late when he saw Fiona floating in the water after jumping off the pier. 

Unfortunately for him, he _was_ too late. Fiona had drowned trying to escape Thomas O'Neill. The gunshot wound on her right arm made matters worse for Michael; had she lived, the wound could've been sewn up.

He held Fiona's lifeless body in his hands, not willing to believe she was dead, not until a hospital proclaimed her dead. 

Even after the nearest hospital proclaimed Fiona as dead, Michael still didn't believe it.

 

It wasn't until after Fiona's death that Michael realized he missed her. He wasn't exactly into her ideas of being punched and tossed around or getting electrocuted with a stun gun. But now that Fiona was gone, Michael missed her voice. He missed her going in his fridge and pulling out yogurt. He missed her smell. He missed having sex with her.

For the first time in his life, Michael regretted putting his burn notice over Fiona.

 

After spending some time in the morgue, Fiona's body went home with her brother Sean. Because O'Neill exposed Michael as an American and because Michael couldn't go anywhere outside the Miami area because of his burn notice, Michael couldn't go to Fiona's funeral. 

_"I'm sorry, McBride. No, I meant Westen. You were never McBride,"_ Sean said over a cell phone. _"Our mother wanted a Catholic funeral for Fiona. She's going to be buried near her sister, not cremated. But if I could, I'd cremate her, fly back to Miami, and spread her ashes in the ocean with you and Sam."_

"And my mother. My mother was fond of Fiona. And if my brother wasn't busy with his other interests, he'd come too." Michael sighed.

_"You know, maybe her ghost is still in the city, following you wherever you go. Maybe she's figuring out a way to get in contact with you in the afterlife."_

"I don't believe in ghost stories, Sean."

 _"Maybe you should start believing in them right now, Westen. It might be the one thing that gives you closure."_

 

Michael was at his mother's apartment to drop off a pack of Morley cigarettes. 

"Have you ever thought about going to Fiona's apartment?" Madeline said to Michael. 

"Why would I do that, Mom?"

"I mean, we both know you can't go back to Ireland to see the funeral or Fiona's gravesite. Think of her apartment as a living memorial of sorts. Does she still have those snow globes she used to collect? You know, every time she'd do a job somewhere, she'd collect a snow globe?"

"Yeah, I think she still has those."

"Maybe you can get one of her snow globes before all her stuff's shipped back to Ireland. I'm sure you'll think of a way. I mean, if you can hotwire a car…"

 

Michael drove to Fiona's apartment dressed as a pest control exterminator. He went to Fiona's landlord's apartment and knocked on the door.

"The tenant in apartment 323 was about to move out," Fiona's landlord tells Michael. "There are boxes all over the place."

"We had an appointment. I don't care whether your tenant is in her room or not, I need the place sprayed for insects right now. As long as there's no one in the room, I can spray. I expect no objections to this."

"Okay, man. I'll unlock 323 for you. Gosh."

 

Everything Fiona owned (that was not in a storage compartment far from her apartment), from her framed target to her Walther, was still there. 

Michael went through the boxes until he found the box where Fiona's snow globes were in. He didn't have time to go through every snow globe in the box, especially with the bubble wrap that covered each individual snow globe and the packing peanuts that were in the entire box. Michael noticed a snow globe with a few Miami-style skyscrapers in it and the word "MIAMI" at its base. He grabbed this snow globe and put it in a bag. 

Michael put the other snow globes and peanuts back in the box. He carefully put packing tape back on the box and left Fiona's apartment. 

 

Michael put the "MIAMI" snow globe on his table as Sam and he were drinking beer.

"I managed to save a piece of Fiona," Michael said.

"Do you think Sean will notice the missing snow globe?"

"I don't think Sean even knows she collected snow globes. He'll be really surprised when he sees her Nataraja statue in her things."

Michael sighed. "Sam, I don't feel motivated to find out who burned me. Not right now. But I know I'm close."

"You still hung up on how you treated Fi before she died?"

"Yeah, Sam."

"You can take a break from that burn notice, buddy. Those bastards are still out there, but don't forget, your mom and your brother's still here. And I'm here. We're here for you, and you should be here for us. Don't let business get in the way." 

Michael shook the snow globe and watched as the "snow" fell on top of the buildings.

"Sam?"

"Yeah, Mikey?"

"Do you think Fi would've liked it if I stayed in Miami, even after I figured out who burned me, and help people who need my help?"

"She probably would, Mikey."

"It's like what Sean said. He believed her ghost would still be in Miami and that she'd figure out some way to contact me in the afterlife."

"You think she's telling you through this snow globe to stay here?" 

"I'm not superstitious, but I think she's telling me that."


End file.
